Martha Hall Kelly

Lilac Girls: A Novel

Lilac Girls

Pretty heavy, but darkness mixed with light. Really well-written and eye-opening.

Bethany

Melissa Palmer

Book #59 Read in 2017
Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

This is my book pick of the year. It is incredible--powerful, captivating and heartbreaking. Set in World War 2, this book is told in three viewpoints--Kasia; Caroline and Herta. Kasia is a Polish prisoner of war at the only all-female concentration camp; Caroline is in New York working to send relief overseas and Herta is the only female doctor in the all-female concentration camp, doing horrible things to the prisoners. This book details "the Rabbits", the female prisoners who were violated by horrible operations and experimental medical procedures. But overall, this shows the strength of women. Even more powerful at the end is the author's note, describing how these women were either real or based on real women. This book was extremely well-written and I will keep an eye out for the author's future books (this is her debut, amazing!)

Elizabeth Wood

This book was really fascinating for me in a historical sense ✨. 

It was an account of World War II that I hadn’t heard before. Parts of the book were also narrated by a Nazi medical doctor which were hard to read, but interesting. Caroline was my least favorite character until the end. I felt like she was self-entitled and a bit of a princess. But she grew on me as the book went on. I also didn’t understand why so much time was spent on her relationship with Paul Rodierre. 

I always appreciate when historical fiction authors do extensive research. This makes the books seem more real for me. Learning at the end that Caroline and Herta were based off of real people improved the story for me as well. 

4⭐️/5

Krystyna 

This book was so heavy. I found myself struggling to read it, and when I did read it I wouldn't read it for very long. It took me a little while to finish this one. It was just so heavy and depressing, and to know that these stories were based on real people's experiences is sad and heartbreaking. Overall, this story was good. I enjoyed it but it wasn't a favorite. I really liked how all of the characters in this story were very distinct. There was good character development in this story and the plot, while slow at times, ran smoothly and kept me engaged while reading. I also enjoyed the different perspectives that were presented in this book. I was unfamiliar with some of them and some aspects/elements of WWII history. Kasia was my favorite and my heart broke for her repeatedly. This story is uncomfortable and graphic at times; but, it's a book worth the read if you enjoy historical fiction.

Katelyn Sykes

It took me a little while to get into this book but I ended up liking it in the end. I had no clue about the rabbits of the concentration camps and was horrified to read what the girls endured. 

I found myself angered at all of the girls throughout various points in the book which made it sometimes hard to continue. It’s a great read if you want to learn more about the war through historical fiction.

Christine W

Tracie McMurray

I’m general I’m not a fan of fiction Holocaust novels. I prefer the nonfiction memoirs and collections of research. But, I was blessed with hearing the author, Martha Hall Kelly, speak about the inspiration for her book and the years of research she put into writing this realistic book based on actual people. So, I am happy to highly recommend this novel.

Switching between three narrators was a challenge. Once I checked out the audio book it was much easier! Don’t let it keep you from finishing this unique story.

Sarah Ryan

Very good book. WWII from three different women's perspectives. Difficult read at times of course, but a very good book.

Nadine 

Sweeping novel based on true lives . Extremely sad and really drives home the aftermath of WW2 for polish survivors of Ravensbruk

Caroline Lewicki

I’m confident this will be one of the best books I read this year. It’s an incredible story about the perseverance of women whose stories are severely underrepresented in the Holocaust/WW2. Gracefully told in three points of view, Kasia is a Polish prisoner of war, Caroline an American using her wealth and fame to help the war effort, and Herta, a German doctor working for the Nazis. It seems unlikely at the beginning that their paths will cross but when they do, the story is just fantastic and moving. It’s also based on real people, which was fascinating in and of itself.

WOW!!! Listened as audio book and it was read beautifully!
I don't usually give 5 stars but this historical fiction was amazing.
Strong women, WW2, based on true events. What more could you ask for in a book? Great narration!
I absolutely loved this book and would recommend it to anyone!!
Thank you Martha Kelly for researching and bringing these characters to life in an incredible way!

Mandi Jayne

I'm sorry I waited so long to read this! The way the characters and storylines moved and meshed together was perfect. Loved every page and I can't wait for the prequel!

Full review ---> http://wp.me/p6yp9N-1v

Melody Izard

I've read so many WWII, holocaust recounting novels that I almost skipped this one. But I needed an audio book and this one was available. The author does a good job of telling the stories of three women, both affected by the war in different ways, whose lives smash into each other.

Katie Holem

Kirsty

4.5 

This story is told from 3 perspectives and I felt completely different while reading all three. 

Caroline is the first person we hear from. I really liked her as a person; I just think she's just a really lovely, kind person. I felt like the romance in her chapters was honestly forced and unnecessary especially considering the importance of the story being told. I loved her chapters towards the end of the book though and her early chapters are why the book didn't get a full 5 stars for me.

I adored Kasia's chapters, even though they were so harrowing and infuriating at times. I loved her as a character and her relationship with pretty much everyone who mattered to her way just beautiful.

Herta's chapters were a WILD ride. During the early chapters I really liked her; I was rooting for her 100%. Then she made some decisions, she let herself be manipulated way to easily and for the rest of the story I hated her. I think she deserved so much worse than she actually got and the fact that that section of the book is true to life makes me so mad,.

I had never heard about the Ravensbrück experiments. I think this is such an important book and I'm so glad that these ladies' story is out there. It made me angry on behalf of the women; I cried so many times and was unbelievably happy too. Any book that makes me feel that strongly is incredible and this is now one of my favourite books.

Kayla 

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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It has taken me a bit to collect my thoughts on this book. I want to preface this with something that I think is very important, there are some triggering events in this book that really affected me while reading it and I almost needed to put it away for a bit. Within the first 100 pages two of these events happen within the same character’s POV and it was very difficult to read. Two out of the three characters are in a concentration camp and the author paints a very vivid picture of the horrors within the camp. Please keep this in mind and if you don’t feel like you can handle reading these things please try a different book. It was really hard for me to get through these parts. .
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Okay let’s talk about the positives now and why I ended up giving this book 4 ⭐️. MHK is an amazing writer! She weaves together three independent stories into one fascinating look on different parts of WWII we are not often taught about in school. First, I have never read a book about a character from Poland who ends up a a concentration camp mostly for political prisoners. The atrocities Polish people went through simply because they were born in that country was eye opening to say the least. .
Caroline’s story was based on the real life story of broadway actress Caroline Ferriday and showed how activists outside of Europe were fighting for the lives and redemption of the victims. .
It was so strange reading Herta’s, the German Doctor, chapters as she was justifying her actions in such a nonchalant way and I kept getting so angry with her. .
This book is definitely an emotional roller coaster and at about 480 pages sometimes it can be overwhelming. I am really looking forward to the authors newest book: Lost Roses, as it takes place during WWI which is when I prefer my historical fiction to take place.

Jordan Heustis

I give this book 4.5 stars. It was fantastic. It’s definitely the type of book that makes you feel a certain way every time you close the book. I absolutely loved two of the main characters the whole way through. The only thing keeping the book from 5 stars was the beginning felt a bit slow, especially compared to the rest of the book, and one out of the three main characters didn’t really start to somewhat interest me until half way through the book. I will definitely be reading the next book!

Emily S

Solid WWII historical fiction from the perspective of three female characters (inspired by real women) across the globe. Enjoyed the rich writing style and the ways the characters intersected (some up until the very end).

Mariana Malvaiz

Lilac Girls is just amazing!
This book not only lets us feel the horrors and injustice of the WWII, but also let’s us see the feelings that came after it, for the different women in the story.
The 3 women in the book have incredibly different lives and this gives a great experience for the reader about how people from many places went through the war. I really loved how the author could transmit Kasia’s sufferings and consequential emotions and Caroline’s passionate involvement, but also let’s us know the hard side of the story with Herta’s point of view.
I absolutely recommend this book!

Elizabeth Raines

I thoroughly enjoyed my three day dive into the World War II era. I had medium expectations for this book as it does have an average 4.27 star rating on Goodreads. Lilac Girls definitely does live up to those standards. I cannot wait to pick up the next book that is in this series and to do my own research on the women featured in this story.

Tessa

b.andherbooks

First things first. I have bought approximately fifteen copies of this book for the library I work at. It is hugely popular, we can barely keep copies on the shelf. I picked it for the "Book to Art" book club program I lead and made the mistake of being influenced by it's popularity and by the pretty, innocuous looking cover. I DID NOT READ THE BLURB. Oops.

Spoiler alert and trigger warning, there are two graphic rapes in the first eighty pages. 

The cover is widely misleading. This is a depressing historical fiction tale set during WWII and after, told in alternating third person narratives by three narrators. Two are based on historical figures. Herta, a German Nazi "doctor" who performs horrific medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners and Caroline Ferriday, an American socialite who's war-time charity work eventually transforms into a campaign to assist the survivors of these medical experiments. Kasia is an amalgamation of real survivors of the Ravensbruck concentration camp medical experiments, women called "rabbits."

I understand the impact and importance of the story, I just didn't want to read it, found it graphically disturbing, and a slog to read. The different POVs are inconsistent, and I'm in no mood to be in the mind of a Nazi or to even feel one hint of sympathy for her plight, even if she is raped by her employer who forces her to sew condoms before he assaults her. What the actual f.

The book is entirely focused on the "rabbits" who are almost entirely made up of Polish Catholic women, women who were political prisoners. Not sure how I feel about that right now.

I enjoyed the post-war portion of the story far more than the first half, as most similar books end with the war. I appreciated Kelly showing that while America was moving on, tired of hearing "sad stories," the rest of the world was still traumatized and barely recovering, especially places under the Iron Curtain.

I'm also growing tired of the world considering books like this "literature" because of the historical context. If it isn't depressing and horrific, it can't be worthy, right? Forget it. I'm back to my HEAs.

Ciska van Bokhorst

Verschrikkelijk om te zeggen, maar heb niet van dit boek genoten. Ik vond het een boek met oppervlakkige personages. En voelde niet de wanhoop die ik bij bv de Nachtegaal voelde. Waarom dan toch 3*?! Omdat het wel een onderwerp is waar het belangrijk voor is dat er over geschreven wordt. En voor de research die de auteur in het boek heeft gestopt.

lilreaderSakura

This book was absolutely amazing it really struck a chord with just how women’s relationships have not changed , there are girls who came from different walks of life to become sisters, mothers and daughters all over again. 

These women and people came together During these terrible dark times of the second world war and to find discover themselves slowly even after years after the end.

It also begs question Of just who could have stayed by and watched this happen from the eyes of another point of view.

 It is a book highly that I recommend to anybody who wants to read a book with heart , pain that allows you to remember the good in ones life and soul in it that captures the light .

Lilac Girls: A Novel

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